Yuan Wu didn't even get a clear look at how Yang Kai had lunged at him — the speed was simply too fast!
Those powerful cultivators who had been keeping their eyes on Yang Kai felt their pupils contract, their faces draining of color with shock. Just moments ago, Yang Kai had delivered that casual palm strike with an air of absolute nonchalance, so their attention had been fixated squarely on him, meaning they saw it all more clearly than anyone else.
And yet even they couldn't fully track Yang Kai's movements. It seemed as though nothing more than an afterimage had flickered past, and Yang Kai had already shifted to a different position.
Yuan Wu snapped back to his senses, a vicious look rising to his face as he raised his fist and drove it straight toward Yang Kai's face. It was practically an instinctive reaction.
But midway through the punch, he suddenly let out a startled cry, his expression turning utterly wretched in an instant.
In that split second, he realized with horror that the youth standing before him had transformed his left eye into a golden vertical slit — a pupil devoid of all emotion, brimming with majesty and awe, like a divine being gazing down from on high.
Under the clash of their gazes, his mind went hazy. In a daze, all he could see was a lotus bud about to bloom, flashing past and plunging into his consciousness.
Searing pain erupted from his spiritual sea and spread throughout his entire body, wracking him with screams and tremors. That fierce, charging punch could no longer land.
Still, he was a powerhouse after all. The moment disaster struck, he realized he had been set up by Yang Kai.
This youth's cultivation was unremarkable — only the first-layer Emperor Realm — but his spiritual power was absolutely terrifying. The soul-based secret art he had launched carried a sensation that threatened to tear Yuan Wu's very spiritual sea apart.
He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue. The sharp pain brought a moment of clarity, and he clenched both fists as bolts of lightning crackled to life, transforming into thunderbolts that shot toward Yang Kai.
They were at extremely close range. Yuan Wu held absolutely nothing back with this strike — its power was immense, the blinding electric light nearly illuminating half the sky.
But what happened next left him incredulous. The lightning pierced straight through Yang Kai's body without inflicting any damage whatsoever, passing clean through his back and blasting into empty air.
Yuan Wu sucked in a sharp breath, scarcely able to believe his own eyes.
At such close range, against such a sudden attack — how had he dodged?
No, not dodged. It was as though his attack had simply had no effect at all.
But how was that possible? The lightning had clearly struck him — Yuan Wu had seen it with his own two eyes.
It wasn't just Yuan Wu who couldn't make sense of it. Everyone else was equally dumbfounded, their jaws practically hitting the floor.
And in that moment of collective shock, Yang Kai suddenly reached out and seized Yuan Wu by the throat.
His movement wasn't fast — to onlookers it was almost painfully slow. Yuan Wu should have been able to sidestep it with ease, yet somehow he didn't. He was simply grabbed, just like that.
Yuan Wu's eyes bulged as he felt a tremendous force clamp down on his neck, as if it would crush his windpipe at any moment. To make matters worse, the faint dragon aura he had been channeling was suppressed in an instant, as if encountering its natural predator. The most visible change was in the dragon scales on his neck — their color faded back to nothing.
Bloodline suppression? Yuan Wu's heart lurched.
During the day, when Li Jiao had ravaged him, he had experienced something similar. The bloodline suppression had limited his strength to roughly eighty percent of its full power, which was why he had been beaten so utterly without the ability to fight back. Otherwise, with his second-layer Emperor Realm cultivation, even if he couldn't have defeated Li Jiao, he should have been able to exchange blows for at least a few rounds. The one-sided massacre would never have happened.
But what was the deal with this human?
Yuan Wu hadn't sensed even a trace of dragon bloodline from him. He wasn't some dragon descendant either. On what basis could he suppress Yuan Wu's bloodline?
What terrified him even more was that this suppression was far more severe than what he had experienced during the day.
Li Jiao had been a third-grade, mid-tier dragon descendant. Even with some bloodline suppression, it wasn't particularly overwhelming, and Yuan Wu had still been able to bring roughly eighty percent of his power to bear.
But now, held by the throat by this youth, his strength had been crushed by more than half. His Emperor Yuan crawled sluggishly through his meridians, refusing to flow properly, as though he had fallen gravely ill. His entire body had turned to mush.
This was absolutely insane!
The iron grip around his neck clamped down like a vise, and Yuan Wu could barely breathe. His face flushed scarlet in an instant, veins standing out along his throat.
The surrounding martial artists nearly dropped their jaws.
What on earth was going on? None of them could make heads or tails of this anymore.
Wasn't Yuan Wu a second-layer Emperor Realm cultivator? Wasn't he a dragon descendant? How had a mere first-layer Emperor Realm human caught him so effortlessly? What kind of trick was this? Even careless underestimation shouldn't result in something like this.
And judging by the abject terror on Yuan Wu's face, it clearly wasn't just a matter of letting his guard down.
He seemed to have kicked an iron plate.
Was this youth really that powerful? Many simply couldn't wrap their heads around it.
The handful of strongest cultivators present, however, exchanged glances with one another, each reading the same shock reflected in the other's eyes.
Lü Sanniang, not understanding the full picture, saw that Yang Kai had actually dared to engage Yuan Wu in combat and had even gotten him by the throat. Her face went pale as she cried out: "Brother Yang, no! Let him go quickly!"
She wasn't pleading on Yuan Wu's behalf — she simply thought Yang Kai was being far too reckless. Yuan Wu held the reins of power here; antagonizing him could only end badly. Mining the Frost Soul Snow Jade was dangerous, true, but as long as one was careful, it wouldn't be a death sentence. And now? He had offended Yuan Wu irreparably. How would they survive the next month?
It wasn't that she lacked perception. It was simply that Yang Kai had his back to her and happened to be shielding Yuan Wu with his body, so she truly couldn't see much of what was happening.
Her words drew a number of strange looks from the crowd.